In efforts to maintain pristine beaches along our coastline, many coastal counties deploy receptacles for beachgoers to deposit trash that they have accumulated during their beach outing. Generally, these trash receptacles are made of polyethylene or another type of hardened plastic material. In many situations, these trash receptacles do not include lids, which allow birds and other wildlife to access spoiled food and other trash. This is harmful to the wildlife and causes unsanitary conditions at the beach.
To address this situation, trash receptacles with attached lids have been deployed. The opening and closing of these attached lids are guided by components that include metal hardware. Given constant exposure to environmental conditions near the ocean (e.g., fog, increased concentration of salt in the air, etc.), the metal hardware tends to corrode. Hence, during use, the lids can become disengaged from the trash receptacle. As a result, the useful lifetime of the trash receptacles is less than optimal. Furthermore, given that there is no restriction in the rotation of the attached lids, in many cases, the lids may not be closed by users, which again allows wildlife access to trash as described above.